Why Endocyte's Secondary Offering Is Actually Pushing the Stock Higher

Health and Healthcare

Published: September 11, 2018 1:45 pm

Last Updated: January 11, 2020 6:06 pm

Endocyte Inc. (NASDAQ: ECYT) filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for a secondary offering. In most cases where a company does this, we see the stock drop. However, in this case investors are cheering Endocyte and its secondary offering.

The company intends to sell $175 million in common stock, with an overallotment option for underwriters to purchase up to an additional $26.25 million of its common stock.

The underwriters for the offering are Jefferies, Wells Fargo and RBC Capital Markets.

Endocyte intends to use the net proceeds from the proposed offering, if completed, to fund the continued clinical development of its pipeline products and preparation for the commercial launch of 177Lu-PSMA-617, if approved, as well as for working capital and general corporate purposes.

This offering comes after the company announced an update from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Monday. After a meeting with the FDA, it was determined that radiographic progression free survival (rPFS) is an appropriate efficacy endpoint in the ongoing phase 3 VISION trial to support the submission of a New Drug Application (NDA) for full FDA approval of 177Lu-PSMA-617 for the treatment of metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer.

Should 177Lu-PSMA-617 meet the primary endpoint in the rPFS assessment, with no unexpected safety issues arising and no detriment in overall survival relative to the control arm, then Endocyte intends to submit an NDA to seek full approval in the United States.

In a sense, Endocyte is capitalizing on its success with the FDA to further fund its operations with more money from the gains that it saw earlier this week.

Shares of Endocyte were last seen up about 3% at $19.49, with a consensus analyst price target of $20.67 and a 52-week trading range of $1.36 to $20.85.